“The Ukrainian army has retreated. Semyonovka remains in our hands,” the people’s mayor of Sloviansk says

Ukrainian helicopter gunship (archive)

SLOVIANSK, June 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian air force has delivered a fresh missile strike on the Semyonovka village near Sloviansk, a local militia source told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.

According to him, the intensity of fighting has decreased though separate shots and explosions could still be heard. “Several gun salvos roared near the village of Andreyevka several minutes ago,” the source said.

Vyacheslav Ponomarev, the people’s mayor of Sloviansk, told ITAR-TASS that up to 10 people had been hurt in the fighting.

“The Ukrainian army has retreated. Semyonovka remains in our hands,” Ponomarev added. “No one has entered the city. They are flailing around in the city outskirts,” the mayor went on to say.

Ponomarev’s press secretary, Stella Khorosheva, told ITAR-TASS that the Ukrainian army had pulled in up to a hundred armored vehicles, including tanks, Tulip self-propelled mortars, Gvozdika self-propelled Howitzers and Grad multiple rocket launchers, to Sloviansk.

“An Antonov-30 aircraft was noticed over the territory of Sloviansk, and it is still flying over the city on and off,” Khorosheva stressed, noting that Ukraine’s National Guard was using tanks in clashes.

“White buses with people dressed in black camouflage are standing near Sloviansk. It seems that they have pulled in the entire army and hardware here,” Khorosheva went on to say.